Hack:Requital
by USKnight
Summary: Two years after the events of .Hack:Quarantine. An alternate continuation of the story. Heavy references to .Hack:AI Buster and .Hack:Zero. Chapter Two uploaded.
1. The Little Girl

DISCLAIMER: I, the author, do not own nor am I affiliated with Bandai Games, TokyoPop, or Project .Hack. This fiction is written purely for entertainment.  
  
**.Hack:Requital**

The field was a desert type and thus was bleak and barren. A few outcroppings of rock jutted out of the ground here and there across the landscape. They had long suffered under the scorching sun. Some of the rocks beared runic symbols carved onto their sides, evidence that someone had been there at some point and at some time long ago.  
  
At the center of this miserable environment appeared a series of magical golden rings. There were three of them and they were visible only a moment. In their wake stood a lone figure that had not been there before.  
  
The Player Character MitchR was a Blademaster, a class of warriors that wore heavy armor and wielded single-handed swords. MitchR was no exception and sported a particularly large and jagged blade at his side.  
  
His body was encased in silver armor with ball-shaped guards on his shoulders. Down both sides of his armor were dual green stripes in decoration. No helmet was upon his head and his short black hair wisped slightly in the wind.  
  
MitchR surveyed the field before him with stern eyes. Black lines of face paint decorated his cheeks and gave him an even more intimidating glare, but the desert seemed to pay no mind to its newest visitor.  
  
High in the sky above him orbited a mysterious background object known as "The Giant in the Sky". It consisted of four streamline shaped aerial vessels that vanguarded a massive humanoid monolith with its arms spread wide. Between these vessels the Giant slowly rotated.  
  
Most players upon first sighting the Giant would gawk upon it. Eventually they would shrug it off; it was after-all only a background element that could be seen in many fields from the Delta Root Town of Mac Anu. Of course there were always some players that just had to know more.  
  
Legend stated that long ago the sprites built the Giant and were transporting it to a place. Some fate befell the crews and ever since the aerial fleet and its cargo have wandered across the sky, lost for eternity in the heavens. He had even heard that there was a way to actually visit the ships themselves and fight some monster, but MitchR cared little for that.  
  
He was a Debugger in the employ of CC Corporation, purveyors of both the ALTIMIT Operating System and the Massively On-line Role Player Game The World. To that end he and others sentried the cyber world of the game and removed any anomalies from it.  
  
While one might not think that a very difficult or demanding job, policing the data streams of The World was a full time job that required the use of two teams, working day and night.  
  
Coded and created by a German and based off an epic poem by a cultist, "The World" operated in ways no one could fully understand. Normal running of the system involved the processing of hundred of mystery executables in the background. The game created and deleted so many files autonomously that it was a wonder CC Corp. had ever allowed the game to be played at all. Removal of these mystery programs meant failure of the entire system and for whatever reason a policy of ignoring these mystery applications had prevailed.  
  
The cost of this selective "blindness" was that the game would from time to time create useless Non-Player-Characters and have them wander throughout the game. They might hide in a dungeon or even walk around a Root Town. These NPCs would have random attitudes, levels of intelligence, and so forth. It was the primary job of the Debuggers to remove these unwanted Artificial Intelligences.  
  
The Azure Knights and the Green Knights had long patrolled The World in their efforts to provide a stable playing environment. MitchR was a member of the Green Knights and though not a senior member, he had deleted his share of AI's. Lately the game seemed to be on a surge of junk creation and he had been dispatched to investigate the field of _Delta Raging Vengeful White Devil_.  
  
His eyes detected no apparent data corruption. The sky background was intact and the desert seemed normal. He reached into his inventory and produced a small item called a "Fairy's Orb". Use of it caused small yellow icons to appear on his mini-map, showing him the locations were monster were likely to appear.  
  
MitchR took off at a brisk pace and made his way across the burning sands to one of these icons. Ahead of him a large golden symbol appeared. It was runic and rotated slowly in place. This was the standard way in The World to encounter monsters.  
  
The background story claimed that using runes drawn on the ground, humans could trap monsters inside these portals. Unfortunately the magic wasn't very stable and if another human came into contact with these portals the monsters could break free.  
  
The Blademaster came ever closer to the portal. Suddenly a flash of light took place and the symbol glowed intensely. A mystical sound byte played and the portal disappeared revealing a monster called a Mu Guardian. The monster was a hovering metallic armor with long blade arms.  
  
It swiped at MitchR, but he did nothing to avoid the blow. His status menu shook and blinked red a moment as hit points were deducted from his character.  
  
"This one seems normal enough," the Debugger commented.  
  
Again the monster slashed at him and again hit points were deducted.  
  
He gave an annoyed look in reply.  
  
The Mu Guardian raised both blade arms and began backing off, preparing for its next assault. MitchR took the moment and removed a magic scroll from his inventory.  
  
He unleashed the spell with a monotone voice, "Wood Tornado."  
  
Leaves and swirling winds unleashed themselves upon the monster. The Mu Guardian rocked back and forth from successive hit point loss and continued backing away. The Mu Guardian was weak to the Wood element and the particular spell was especially useful against it.  
  
With the Wood Tornado trailing off MitchR finished the kill with a quick slash from his sword. The animated armor fell to the sand, darkened in color, and finally disappeared into thin air.  
  
The Debugger sighed.  
  
Two monster portals later and three kills later found MitchR in a bored, almost sheepish mood.  
  
"Why does it always have to be at the deepest level of the dungeon?" he asked himself aloud and resigned to heading towards the icon on his map resembling a down arrow. Every field in The World was composed of an open area with monster portals and then an interior, usually a dungeon composed of multiple basements.  
  
MitchR plodded his way towards a large open roofed stone temple that revealed a long series of steps heading down, silently grumbling along the way. He fidgeted with his sword and generally did little to hide his annoyance. It was not as if anyone else was around. Standard CC Corp. procedure was to lock down any suspicious fields.  
  
He was about to begin walking down the steps when he stopped dead in his tracks with a startle. Just off to his left hovering gently in the air was a figure he had never seen before.  
  
It was a small sleeping girl, dressed in a red and pink dress. Her light pink hair drifted in the wind as she floated in place above the ground. Strangely enough her hair had two almost flower petal like streaks on both sides of her head. He estimated she could be no more then seven years old in appearance and her complexion was very pale.  
  
"I've never seen an AI like this before," the Debugger remarked and took another look upon her. She was definitely a unique creation.  
  
He shrugged, "Well sister, it's time."  
  
His fingers flicked the buttons to bring up his Command menu and he used his controller's directional pad to move the bar over the "Debug" command.  
  
The little girl's eyes opened.  
  
"Huh?" MitchR blurted out in surprise and accidentally pressed the "Cancel" button instead of "Debug". The menu flashed out of existence from the corner of his screen.  
  
He could see the little girl's fiery red eyes focus on him and her expression changed to that of utter hate. This too took him by surprise, but it was not fear that swelled to life in him. It was amusement.  
  
MitchR smiled and took a hold of his sword, "You don't like me much, do you little girl?"  
  
She continued to float there, glaring at him.  
  
The Debugger scoffed and slashed out with his blade attacking the girl.  
  
The message "Miss" appeared before him.  
  
He brought the blade to bear before her again and again, but each time the game reported that he had missed.  
  
Finally he lowered his weapon and stared back at the little girl.  
  
"You're a tough one, eh?" he taunted.  
  
Pressing the button brought up the "Action" menu once more. He moved the D-Pad to "Debug" and pressed the execute button.  
  
MitchR's character thrusted his free hand forward. Inside his palm a ball of energy was generated. It grew more and more powerful with every passing second.  
  
"Eat this, little girl!" MitchR said with a grin and unleashed the ball of energy.  
  
It raced towards the girl, arcing and sparking as it traveled. Inches from her it suddenly slammed into an invisible wall and squashed upon it, exploding its energy away from her. The wall remained visible a few seconds after the blast, a shield of joined light green hexagons forming a barrier before the girl. Then it was gone.  
  
MitchR dropped his arm and took a step back. His mind raced for an explanation. His mind raced for an idea of what to do.  
  
The little girl smiled.  
  
In the heavens above the "Giant in the Sky" stopped revolving. The aerial fleet itself halted in place and the ancient magical field that held the monolith aloft dissipated. Like a rock the Giant fell to the desert sands and slammed into the ground with a force so strong the entire field shook.  
  
Sand filled the air and temporarily blocked all sight. As it settled back down to the ground, the Giant was visible half buried on its side, one arm still reaching for the sky from which it came.  
  
MitchR's jaw dropped at the sight of it and he remained silent and still.  
  
A soft voice asked, "Where is mother?"  
  
MitchR turned back to the girl.  
  
"Where is mother?" she asked again.  
  
The Debugger's face turned to complete confusion, "What?"  
  
Suddenly there was a piercing sound, like that of a water droplet falling from a leaky faucet and landing in the sink. The screen became full and static and the field seemed to destabilize.  
  
MitchR took another step back from the girl.  
  
A loud rumble sounded from where the giant had landed and a powerful explosion followed. From the carcass of the monolith bursted a new figure that surged out from the ground.  
  
The newcomer seemed to be made of stone. It resembled a large stone stick figure with long and skinny appendages. Its face was round with three notches for eyes in a triangle layout. Some sort of large stone halo connected to the rear of its head and broke only in one place, otherwise completing a full circuit.  
  
This stick golem stretched its arms out wide and a torrent of energy flashed about it. Slowly the figure glided down to the ground until finally the stumps for its feet made contact with the ground.  
  
MitchR needed no further incentive and rapidly pushed the series of buttons to bring up the Command menu and select "Debug". His free palm once again held a growing ball of energy and he wasted no time in directing his arm in the direction of the stick golem.  
  
Frantically he urged his "Debug" skill to complete, "Hurry! Hurry!"  
  
Spinning like a top the golem closed the distance between them and whacked the Player Character with one of its long arms.  
  
The previous monsters had dealt him minimal damage and MitchR had not felt the need or the urgency to use any type of recovery item or spell to replace his lost hit points. In comparison the one attack he had now suffered at the hands of the stick golem had reduced his hit points to less then one-third.  
  
He was about to heal himself when a message flashed before him and then stayed hovering over his head. The message read, "Protect Break".  
  
"Protect Break? What is that? What kind of status effect is that?"  
  
The little girl was still glaring at him. Her smile was gone, but her voice was still soft as she asked again, "Where is mother?"  
  
He looked back to her and shouted, "What are you talking about? What is wrong with you?"  
  
The little girl finally lowered her gaze and closed her eyes. She spoke one final time before disappearing into thin air, "Skeith. Data Drain."  
  
MitchR flinched, "What? Where are you going?"  
  
From behind him came a sound that could only be described as energy charging up to capacity. He turned back around in time to see the stick golem pointing its arm back at him.  
  
Around the golem's wrist was some kind of data graphic that resembled a large plus symbol or cross hair. The lines of this plus symbol were bending down until they pointed directly at MitchR.  
  
Too late the Debugger tried to use a curative spell to replenish his hit points. Even if he had, he was not certain his fate would have been any different.  
  
From the arm of the stick golem to the center of his chest came a data stream of garbled alphanumerics. Upon contact he felt the greatest headache he had ever felt in his life and MitchR cried out in agony. The pain lasted only a moment before being replaced by numbness throughout his body. The Player Character fell sprawled to the ground, limp as a rag doll.  
  
MitchR tried to move his body, his real body, the one holding the controller and sitting in front of his computer terminal. He was tormented to find that he could not and slowly an overwhelming feeling of sleep overcame him.  
  
His words came out slow and drunkenly, "W-w-what is happening t-to me- e?"  
  
The stick golem lowered its arm and faded away, as did the rest of the field. As did the rest of his consciousness.  
  
The man known as Robert Mitchell slumped face down at his computer desk. A woman co-worker walked by and seeing his status, tried in vain to wake him up. She shook his shoulder thoroughly to the point where the man fell completely out of his swivel chair and onto the carpeting.  
  
It was then she realized that he had not fallen asleep.  
  
Then she screamed.


	2. Foolish Pride

.Hack:Requital – Chapter Two "Foolish Pride"  
  
The Conference Room was filled with more the two dozen people at the CC Corporate Headquarters in Shinjuku, Japan. Almost no one assembled knew the purpose of the emergency meeting or why they had been summoned so urgently.  
  
Even more troubling was that the Chief Executive Officer was already in attendance. In no normal meeting would he have been one of the first to arrive, nor would he have allowed himself to be seen as he was now. Indeed, the older gentleman was tie-less, unshaved, and haggard looking. No doubt he had not planned at coming into the office at 4:00 a.m. anymore then the rest had.  
  
There was much commotion as those assembled talked amongst themselves, most trying to figure out what crisis had befallen the company. Others were engaged in small talk, though all were mindful that the boss of their bosses was present among them.  
  
An exceptional few were sitting idly by, one woman in particular. Mid twenties with short black hair that only reached her collar, she wore a look a reserved fury upon her face. Her fists were balled in her lap.  
  
The CEO was in a very impatient mood as well and even though several people were still due to arrive; he decided then and there to begin the meeting by standing up.  
  
The room went silent and all eyes turned to him. He spoke loudly to be heard and almost glared at those assembled as he spoke, "What is said in this room stays in this room."  
  
Several people were taken aback by his tone, but remained silent."  
  
"A few hours ago one of our employees fell into a coma while performing server maintenance on _The World_."  
  
The jaw of _The World_ Operations Manager dropped. He was an older man himself, over fifty years old with graying black hair combed back revealing his forehead. He made his comment aloud, "You're joking."  
  
The CEO brought his stare upon the man and replied, "I wish I were."  
  
Whispers ran through the crowd many people shuffled in place. The Public Affairs Manager raised a hand to signal that he wanted to speak.  
  
"Stuff it," the CEO ordered the man harshly and then brought his attention back to the whole, "No one will learn of this. We will contain the problem."  
  
"But sir, the last time-"  
  
"I said stuff it!" the man boomed. Silenced filled the room once more.  
  
Two years ago a series of people had fallen comatose while playing The World. At first it had been Players, but eventually Debuggers had been lost as well. The CEO at that time had decided to blame the instances on viruses planted by hackers into CC Corp's servers.  
  
The truth of the matter was that the mystery applications that the game ran in the background were causing unknown program malfunctions. Monsters with infinite hit points ran amok and the graphics and background of the game were deteriorating at an alarming rate. The game was destroying itself.  
  
The phony story served well to keep the public distracted while CC Corp did everything in its power to solve the mystery surrounding the coma victims. In the end it had been decided to pull the plug on the servers, hoping that if the system were reformatted and rebooted, that the problems would be gone.  
  
A group of players however argued against the plan. One in particular had use of an illegal item that gave him the power to rewrite monster data and break through the protective barriers CC Corp Debuggers had put in place to contain the data corruption.  
  
Somehow, with whatever knowledge and understanding of the situation these players had that CC Corp did not, the coma victims had recovered and the game had returned to normal.  
  
In light of the previous crisis, the former CEO had been forced to step down. The current man to hold the position now faced the warning signs of this same course of events taking place once again. He was not about to allow the game to steal his job away from him.  
  
The Operations Manager crossed his arms across his chest and almost smirked, "And what do you plan to do about this problem?"  
  
He was a veteran of the original game crisis and by his actions had done much to help (and almost as much to hamper) the actions that led to its resolution. He would have been lying if he said he had not expected the game to begin corrupting once again before the end of his career.  
  
"Do what you must. Set up "Protected Areas", veer players away from the infection; tell them its maintenance; tell them to go to other servers; tell them anything!" the CEO blared back at him.  
  
"Humph," the other man sounded with a scowl.  
  
"You disagree?"

"Yes in fact, I do."

"And what do you suggest?"  
  
The Operations Manager gave him a cool grin, "That you start packing your bags. Once this starts up, there will be no way to contain it."  
  
A mask of hate formed out of the CEO's face and he balled his fists. He stormed over to the seated man and glared upon him with all of his fury.  
  
The other man returned his gaze, but also maintained his thin smile.  
  
"You sit there all smug. I should have you fired."

"Ha! You know nothing of what we are about to face, do you?"

"This is MY Company. The servers are yours. If they fail, I will hold you responsible!"  
  
The Operations Manager leaned farther back into his chair and wore an amused smirk on his face. He did not fear for his job in the least and saw the argument merely as the CEO's denial to see future events coming their way.  
  
"Ah, sir?" asked a young man near the back of the room, "May I make a suggestion?"  
  
Not breaking eye contact with the Operations Manager, the CEO responded harshly, "What?"  
  
The young man gulped before continuing, "Sir, um, maybe we should contact the Player Character that defeated this virus before?"  
  
The CEO's eyes shot open wide and he instantly zeroed in on the employee.  
  
The man started to babble nervously, "Well... it's just a suggestion... um... sir."  
  
"Absolutely not!" the senior blared, "No! No one outside this room will know of this! Is that understood?"  
  
The young man flinched and lowered his eyes to the floor. He weakly answered, "Understood, sir."  
  
"As for the Debuggers," the CEO continued, now looking directly at the woman who was trying to contain her rage. He waited until she returned eye contact before finishing, "Destroy this virus at all costs!"  
  
The woman slowly stood up from her chair and with grim determination replied, "Yes, sir."  
  
Four sets of magical golden rings flashed into existence in the middle of the desert field. Almost as quickly they dissipated and four stood amongst the wastes.  
  
"_Delta Raging Lurking White Devil_," announced the Player Character Magi. She wore red robes, had blue mid-length hair, and sported circular wire frame spectacles. She was a Wavemaster, the class best suited to casting devastating magical spells at the cost of low defense against physical attack. Most members of this class carried staffs, but Magi preferred to carry only a magic tome.  
  
"Seems normal enough to me," TMac commented as he looked around. He wore shiny full plate armor with twin green stripes down both his sides and carried a very large two-handed great sword on his back. TMac was a Heavyblade and as such wore heavy armor and could inflict great amounts of physical damage upon his enemies. Like MitchR before him, he wore no helmet and had black lines on both cheeks, though his hair was blonde and spiky.  
  
Another character, a Blademaster raced ahead of the group and searched for signs of movement or data corruption. Her armor consisted of a breastplate with ball shaped shoulders and black leathers for over her chest and arms. The armor was decorated with a series of green stripes that crossed over each other on the shoulders and across the front and back. Matching black gloves and boots covered her extremities and a mid-length green skirt that was slit on the sides up to her hips completed her outfit.  
  
"Data corruption that could hurt a Player Character should be visible, so where the heck is it?" she complained and looked back to the last member of their entourage.  
  
Bearing the same breastplate and leathers as the former, Kamui's stripes were red and her skirt was black, rather then green. Her boots also differed as they were white, but the two characters were nearly identical facially. Kamui's hair was short, while the Blademaster's was mid-length.  
  
"Don't worry Shoukianata, we will find this virus and we will destroy it," she responded. Determination was imprinted on Kamui's face and she tightened her grip on her spear. She was a Long Arm, a class of medium armored, less agile, but heavy physical hitters.  
  
Shoukianata put her hands on her hips and huffed, "Well are you done lollygagging?"  
  
"Huh? Oh..." TMac became self conscious and brought his attention down from the sky and back to the matter at hand. He seemed reluctant for a moment, but it was long enough for their leader to notice.  
  
"What is it, TMac?" Kamui asked.  
  
"Well," he started, but again hesitated. He was unsure if his thought really warranted being relayed to his boss.  
  
"Out with it, man!" Shoukianata demanded. She was anxious to find the virus, not sit around conversing.  
  
TMac flinched at her outcry, but still waited a moment before answering, "Well, ma'am, I was thinking. I'm not really sure, but if I remember right, some fields-"  
  
"Will you just spit it out already?!"  
  
Annoyance rose in him, but he ignored it and quickly summarized his observation, "I noticed the "Giant in the Sky" background is missing."  
  
Kamui's eyes widened a moment in disbelief. She wanted to say something back to the man, but it was the Player Character of her niece who once again spoke out.  
  
"One of our number is in a coma and all you can think about is stupid graphics?" Shoukianata screamed in rage. At her side she held her broad sword in a death grip and felt very tempted to use it.  
  
TMac took a step back and lowered his gaze, feeling embarrassed to have caused a scene and wasting his superior's time.  
  
As if sensing the right moment, Magi spoke next, "Perhaps we should continue to investigate the field?"  
  
Shooting a last glance at TMac, Kamui nodded her head, "Let's move out."  
  
"Fairy's Orb," Magi said as she expended the item from her inventory, but to their surprise, no yellow symbols appeared on their mini-maps.  
  
Shoukianata tilted her head to one side, "Hmm... why aren't there any monsters?"  
  
TMac wiped his chin with a hand, "Maybe MitchR cleared the field?"  
  
Annoyed their senior replied, "The field should have reset after his character was killed."  
  
The emptiness of the desert lay before them and they visually confirmed that there were no monster portals in any direction. This fact did not sit well with Kamui. It was almost as if she could feel a dark shadow creeping up behind her.  
  
Behind her, Magi flipped through her magic tome, which also doubled as her in-game Personal Data Assistant. At last she found the page she was looking for and called to her leader, "Miss Kamui, may I show you something?"  
  
The Long Arm motioned the other two to move on up ahead and turned around to join the Wavemaster, "Yes, what is it?"  
  
The other woman closed the book with both hands and wore a look of seriousness, "Miss Kamui, _The World_ operating logs state that MitchR arrived at this server at 0111 this morning. He opened three monster portals and defeated four monsters. He then headed to the dungeon, but never entered it."  
  
"Hmm..."

"Oh and Miss Kamui, TMac was correct. The log states that the "Giant in the Sky" background was deleted at 0121 this morning."

"Deleted?"  
  
"Deleted," the blue haired Wavemaster repeated still wearing the same face of seriousness.  
  
"How can that be?" Kamui pondered aloud. She was about to ask Magi if she had any other findings, but she was interrupted by voices from afar.  
  
"You're such an idiot!"

"I-I'm sorry."

"You wasted my aunt's time with your stupid comments!"

"Will you just drop it?"

"I outta drop you!"  
  
Shoukianata and TMac approached mutually ended their argument as they closed the last of the distance between them. The younger woman had quite a scowl on her face and TMac did not appear much happier.  
  
"It's the truth. There are no Monster Portals on this field, aunt."  
  
Kamui crossed her arms and squinted. She was perturbed by the information she was receiving. _What exactly had happened here?_ She wondered.  
  
Magi was the first to interrupt her thoughts, "Miss Kamui, may I suggest we now head to the dungeon?"  
  
Kamui hesitated for a breath before nodding her head.  
  
The squad of Green Knights was greeted at the open-roofed stone temple by an enormous amount of rubble at one end of it. Curiously enough, it very much resembled the lower half of the "Giant in the Sky". Its legs were clearly visible, more then half buried underneath the sand. One arm jutted out of the ground, but the rest of the upper body was no where to be seen.  
  
Kamui shot a glance at her assistant, "Magi, you're sure the logs say, "Deleted", correct?"  
  
The spectacled Wavemaster nodded.  
  
Kamui's brow furrowed. "That doesn't make any sense, the-"  
  
"Um, ma'am..."

"What the heck is that?!"  
  
Kamui turned around quickly to face the other two, but her eyes caught notice of what they would have told her. Floating above the ground not ten feet from her was a little girl, dressed in a red and pink dress.  
  
"Albiero, I missed you," she greeted with a smile.  
  
"Who?"

"Albiero. You're Albiero, aren't you?"  
  
Kamui's face showed the confusion she felt, "I am Kamui, of the Green Knights and you are?"  
  
The little girl was unconvinced, "But you look like Albiero. You have one gold eye and one blue eye, like Albiero. You even carry the same spear as him."  
  
Kamui's grip tightened on her spear, "I am not this Albiero you speak of girl."  
  
The little girl drew closer and she opened her arms for an embrace, "I missed you, Albiero."  
  
"Enough! I have heard enough from you AI and now it is time!" Shoukianata shouted and surged forward, thrusting her free hand towards the little girl. "Debug!"  
  
From her palm emerged a white ball of energy. She allowed it to power up for only a moment before releasing towards her target.  
  
For the second time a sphere of energy rushed towards the little girl and for the second time a wall of translucent green hexagons appeared at the terminal moment to shield her from harm.  
  
"What the?!" she cried.  
  
Kamui was stunned, TMac's jaw dropped, but Magi only stood there emotionless in observation. If anything, the Wavemaster was impressed by the girl's power.  
  
Friendly red eyes quickly changed to fiery eyes of hate as the little girl balled her fists. She turned away from the Debuggers and spoke, "You are not Albiero. Skeith. Data Drain."  
  
Then the little girl disappeared.  
  
TMac was the first to speak, "What was that?"  
  
Perhaps someone would have commented, but they were cut off by a hideously loud sound, a sound like a water drop. Then their monitor screens began to flicker and show static, but after a moment this passed.  
  
All four looked about them for the source of the noise. They're search was short however, when a huge black rift opened in thin air where the little girl had vanished. Out of it stepped the stick golem and this time it wielded a large red stick in the shape of a cross.  
  
"Aunt, what the heck is it?!" Shoukianata cried and held her sword at- the-ready. Even Magi took a step back.  
  
"This is the one!" Kamui shouted. Determination rose in her and she let her anger pour out. There was no doubt in her mind that they had found the monster responsible. Quickly she placed both hands onto the shaft of her weapon, the legendary Wotan's Spear. The incredibly rare unique pole arm had been passed down from senior Debugger to senior Debugger since The World had opened to the public.  
  
Not wasting another moment, the rest of the squad attacked in unison. TMac lashed out with his great sword, Magi used a scroll to summon the water elemental Merrows, and Shoukianata rushed forward to jab her blade into the monster.  
  
For their efforts, three "Miss" messages appeared before them.  
  
Kamui herself raised the sharp point of the Wotan's Spear and pushed behind it with all her might. The stick golem shuddered and flashed red a moment. The game popped up a message showing how many hit points of damage she had caused it.  
  
"399".  
  
"See!" Shoukianata celebrated, "We can hurt it!"  
  
This revitalized their spirits as they started their second round of attacks. TMac used the skill "Death Bringer" and leapt six feet clear off the ground before bringing his blade down at the legs of the monster. Magi cast the spell "Vak Dom" and called forth a stream of fire meteors to crash into her target. Meanwhile Shoukianata used her skill "Vak Revolver" to use her blade as if it were shot out of a cannon, pushing it forcefully ahead of her. Kamui continued to jut with her spear again and again.  
  
To their delight a few precious messages of the stick golem taking damage were interspaced with the "Miss" messages.  
  
"Humph," TMac remarked as he slashed once again with his great sword, "This monster isn't so tough!"  
  
Then came the retaliation.  
  
The stick golem that the little girl had called Skeith raised its stick and whacked TMac across the front. This sent the Heavyblade flying backwards and crashing into the ground, a full half his hit points lost.  
  
With un-heard of speed Skeith spun around and drove the stick into Shoukianata as if she were a golf ball. The drive left her somersaulting in the air until she slammed into the desert sand, laid out on her back. She also had half left of the life she had started with.  
  
Even as Kamui pierced the beast continuously, Skeith turned to face her and balled its fists in a pose of strength.  
  
Her eyes widened as she realized it was not a pose at all. Quickly she turned to face away from the stick golem and shielded herself, but it was too late.  
  
The sky turned black in an instant and magical glaciers of ice appeared, encasing the monster's enemies. Inside they were powerless to neither resist nor move for a few seconds before the ice exploded as if it were a bomb. The sky returned to normal as the force of these explosions took a full third of their respective character's hit points.  
  
"Pha Repth!" Magi recited and the healing power of her spell restored the hit points of herself and anyone near her to maximum. TMac and Kamui exchanged glances as the spell healed them, but Shoukianata was quite separated from the trio.  
  
"Get over here!" Kamui cried to her.  
  
TMac readied himself for their next round of attack, but Magi was engrossed in reading the data in her magic tome. He shot her a look of confusion.  
  
"Miss Kamui! According to the logs, this monster's hit point data is corrupted!"  
  
Kamui brought her attention back to the Wavemaster, "What does that mean?"  
  
"Miss Kamui, it means that no matter what we do to it, we cannot defeat it."  
  
"What?!" TMac exclaimed. He staggered a moment and looked back to Skeith with a gulp.  
  
Their leader was already in action, running towards her niece at top speed. Her voice was desperate as she screamed, "Shoukianata, we have to retreat!"  
  
She was closing the distance between them and the younger woman was getting to her feet, but the monster was the one who reached the finish line, first.  
  
Wobbly on her feet, Shoukianata raised her blade in defense, but no physical attack came. Instead she found herself being lifted into the air and behind her appeared Skeith's red cross.  
  
"W-what is happening?!" she asked in a panic. Her reply came as the stick golem pointed an outstretched palm towards her and a plus symbol of data surrounded the monster's wrist. The lines of this plus bent towards her until...  
  
"Ritsuko!" Kamui's voice echoed as a stream of data sprang from the beast's arm and penetrated Shoukianata's body.  
  
The young woman did not scream as pain filled her mind, followed by numbness. Her character fell to the sands and lay motionless. She tried to reach out for Kamui, but darkness overcame her too quickly. Her last words came out weak, "Aunt..."  
  
The leader of the Green Knights let out a war cry like none had been heard in _The World_ before and she charged Skeith with every fiber in her body. The Wotan's Spear stabbed again and again at the graphic of the monster and meaningless damage messages appeared where they hit.  
  
Kamui shouted continuously as she ravaged the monster, "Die! Die, damn you! Die!"  
  
To her left came TMac with another "Death Bringer" and an assortment of spells peppered across the stick golem's exterior. The Debugger's were relentless in their attack and Skeith did little fight back.  
  
After his fourth "Death Bringer", TMac asked his superior, "Why doesn't it fight? Do you think we're hurting it?"  
  
Kamui was oblivious to him, but Magi answered him, "I do not believe so." Concern was in her eyes, yet she still reached into her inventory and expended yet another "Merrows" summon upon the monster.  
  
With all three Players close, Skeith finally acted. The beast raised its red stick on high and slammed it not upon a Player, but the very ground between them.  
  
The force of the impact was so great that all three Debuggers fell off their feet. TMac and Kamui lost half their hit points in that instant and while the characters were scrambling to their feet, the monster moved forward and brought the red stick down again, this time over Magi.  
  
With so little physical defense, the hit killed the Wavemaster outright and her character slumped over immediately. Over the body appeared a transparent version of herself and Magi found herself a ghost and out of the battle. As long as there were party members still active in the field, Magi would remain free of the "Game Over" screen and could be revived with the right items or spells.  
  
"Miss Kamui, please exit this area immediately!" the magic user pleaded.  
  
The Long Arm disengaged from attacking Skeith and brought up her Command menu, placing the cursor over "Warp back to Root Town".  
  
"TMac! Exit out!" Kamui ordered.  
  
The Heavyblade nodded and pulled back. He too brought up his Command menu and began moving the cursor to the appropriate line item.  
  
The stick golem surged forward and horizontally raked its red stick in front of itself, nailing TMac and knocking his hit points down to a quarter as well as off his feet.  
  
He highlighted "Exit to Root Town" and was about to press the execute button when his Command menu winked out of existence.  
  
"Huh?" he asked in a panic. Without the menu obscuring his vision, he could easily see Skeith point his outstretched palm towards him.  
  
"Oh no!" TMac exclaimed as his body was lifted into the air with his limbs pulled outward. Behind him he knew the red cross had appeared.  
  
Part of Kamui's mind shut down as she watched her team mate impaled by a stream of garbled data and fall lifelessly back down to the desert. Her entire world turned to a hue of red and in this world the only emotion she could feel was hate.  
  
She glared upon Skeith as the red stick rematerialized in its left hand. She watched as it turned around to face her and pounded the end of its stick into the ground before thrusting the opposite end towards her in a menacing manner.  
  
The ghost of Magi pleaded yet again, "Miss Kamui, please leave NOW!"  
  
With hatred burning so hot that her body trembled, the leader of the Green Knights depressed the execute button and watched as the field disappeared from her sight.


End file.
